• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

At equal pricing, would you buy a game on Steam or from Retail?

Page 3 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

Steam, Digital Distribution, or Retail?

  • I would buy from steam

  • I would buy from steam only if it replaces the drm included in the retail copy

  • I would buy from a download service that does not require me to be logged in to play

  • I would buy a retail copy

Results are only viewable after voting.
A few years ago I would have said retail, but I'm a steam convert. It's just so easy, you never have to worry about losing discs and reinstalling just involves copying the data.

I download at about 650KB/s so downloading a 10 gig game doesn't take that long. 3 or 4 hours. Not a big deal for me.
 
Wont go on any more rants cuz most of you know how I feel about Steam recently. Will say that these days I'd prefer a download that doesnt have DRM and/or require some kind of online access to play. Thats difficult because so many titles require GFWL nowadays. And THQ/Relic has their own thing and now theres this YuPlay nonsense.

So honestly I think my next purchases are going to be retail and if theres a way to make it work without the disc in the drive, so much the better. And since I am only looking forward to two games its not such a big deal for me.
Will wait until Starcraft 2 has been out for a week and see what everyone else had to deal with, then decide if I want it. Ditto Deus Ex 3. Been burned on too many retail and Steam games to jump in blindly anymore.
 
Well the plus side of retail is that you get a physical copy which can be cool but can also just add to clutter.

With Steam, not only do you not have to go out and buy said copy (which you'll probably end up having to pay tax on and have it actually cost more, not to forget the gas you'll use picking it up), whenever you uninstall the game or move to a different computer you can have access to that game through Steam - no need to worry about losing discs.
 
Saga said:
Considering how terrible Impulse is (and how few games it supports), this has to be a troll response.
Click to expand...

Terrible is just your opinion, and certainly open to debate.
The number of titles it supports is totally irrelevant. Some of us have lives and don't own hundreds of games.
I suspect you are the troll here.
BE NICE!
 
MJinZ said:
Does steam give you 1 Megabyte/second?

It never did for me.
Click to expand...

Usually more for me. Only thing that takes more bandwidth is BitTorrent.

As to which I buy, it depends on the DRM, though I give the advantage to Steam. Its simply easier to load Steam and make a few clicks to re-install all my games than it is to pop and swap optical disks for hours. Install Steam, install the small games for something to do right away, then let the larger games DL while I'm at work or overnight.
 
MJinZ said:
Does steam give you 1 Megabyte/second?

It never did for me.
Click to expand...

I've gotten 3MB/s connections with steam. Just today, in fact. However, with game sizes ballooning to >10GB/s, it still takes a while to download a game. On the other hand, installing a 15GB game that's been compressed into a 4GB DVD takes forever too, so time wise there's no big lose, and steam is much less painful in the actual install process.
 
I have a FiOS connection so downloads are almost never an issue. The only time I've ever had issues are obviously when something is literally just released but it's just a slow connection. It's so much more convenient and most of the time cheaper than retail.
 
I'm for retail if they're equal. If there's a crazy drm involved, I just avoid buying altogether. I'm not a big fan of steam, although I own half life orange box. But that's about it.
 
Steam as long as it doesn't have a limit on the number of times you can install the game. But for games that have this limit (like Crysis), the retail versions have the same limit..so yeah, Steam.
 
I've been considering this lately, and I don't have a good answer. I just 'like' to have the physical copy so I lean towards that, but not for any good reason.

Steam does advantages of less clutter, and automatically keeping the game updated and working on a current setup.

(One way to rationalize re-buying games we own on Steam is that the original CD version for Win XP might not work on 7 - though it might well work, too.)

There's always that tiny chance that Steam will ban our account over something (low risk if we don't go buying codes and such) or fold at some point (though it's doing well it seems).

One downside to Steam is the installation process being a slower download, and being 'locked in' (original games and expansions all have to be on Steam), but it's very convenient too.

I do like the point of the poster who was concerned for local retail, but at a point you recognize that there's a sort of pointless inefficiency to the retail over the digital.

And that has a way of coming out of the developers' pockets, who deserve the money. It's sort of wasted money, really, the packaging, the transportation, the retail overhead etc.

One advantage to retail of course is when it includes nice items, a good manual etc.
 
Last edited:
ZzZGuy said:
If there is no hostile DRM then retail.
If there is hostile DRM then Steam, assuming steam doesn't have the same DRM as well.
If both have hostile DRM, then I buy neither.

At least with steam they offer useful services which compensate for the online activation. Though I set my price cap for steam games at $15 due to lack of control of your games, say if a company buys out valve and charges you a monthly fee to use steam. Exception being if a friend really wants to play a co-op game, otherwise I wait out steam for a sale (so..many..sales..).
Click to expand...

I would add:
If there is a large fan mod base (i.e. RPGs), then retail.

Steam will not work with mods which need to alter the exe. This includes bug fixes done by the fans, which the publisher/developer never fixed since they had already abandoned game support in order to develop the sequel, even though they continue to sell the game. Bethesda, for example.
 
ZzZGuy said:
If there is no hostile DRM then retail.
If there is hostile DRM then Steam, assuming steam doesn't have the same DRM as well.
If both have hostile DRM, then I buy neither.
Click to expand...

This. The digital copy is worth less to me, especially since you can usually register the key with steam and use steam anyway. That said, if the disk has shitty DRM, that version is worth A LOT less, perhaps nothing depending on circumstances to me.
 
emm386 said:
Seems, though, everytime I buy a DVD, Steam has a major update and I have to install the whole game again from Steam even after I just installed it from the DVD. Plus, Steam updating is mandatory - you can't play the DVD install and update later, you have to wait for the update to install, which can take hours.

Happens quite a lot to me (L4D, Orange Box, Dark Messiah, etc).
Click to expand...

That's been my problem as well, plus limited bandwidth/low cap makes Steam not a great option.

/if i had decent isp i would have no problems with Steam
 
Last edited:
Elcs said:
Steam hands down.

However Steam needs many more download and verify options (ie. a scheduler) for it to be more effective in my eyes. I get STM'ed (my speed reduced by 75% for I think 8 hours, if I download more than 2Gb in a certain time window. There is also another time window where I can download unlimited stuff without fear of that temporary speed cap so to be able to tell Steam to download all updates then would be glorious)

Another Steam caveat is... the HDD where I have my Steam on (500Gb) is nearly full (less than 10Gb free) and I can't really take more off the drive as it's meant to be a games-only drive. 🙂
Click to expand...

This is another thing...steam is worthless on dial up, it just craps out all the time and hoses the connection completely. And while I can't tell for sure, given the horrible feedback...it seems to not resume downloads correct...perhaps only working on a file by file basis. I realize that my shitty connection isn't ideal for this kind of system but it should at least WORK without constantly having to restart it to get a single update for a single game downloaded. I gave up trying to keep L4D updated...and that was before they came out with new maps for it.

Steam could use a few features that would make everyone's lives easier. An option for updates to be downloaded to a local "source" location, removing the need to download the same updates repeatedly (or manually copy install folders). A simple peer-to-peer check option to have local clients share updates would do this. Any option, at this point I wouldn't even care if it was a PITA to setup.

Going along with the above, an update scheduler as mentioned...with a resume that actually works. If you had the peer to peer thing though, one could get this going by just installing using windows scheduler.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top